


The Man Through the Window

by SandraOnite



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Admiring from Afar, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, slight stalking idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-16 06:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4614120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandraOnite/pseuds/SandraOnite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan has lived in his house for over a year and admired his next door neighbor for the entirety of this time. He's never introduced himself but the man sure does look cute eating cereal at two am in a pizza shirt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the man

The key is jabbed into the lock, barely even going in all the way before its twisted harshly in his haste to get inside. Door hinges creak and groan as they’re forced to move for the first time in hours. The owner of the house moves through the doorway and slams it behind him. Finally home, he thinks. Its not that he doesn’t enjoy his job, he does, but editing footage for hours on end is a stress on his eyes.   
He walks through the houses main floor, or rather shuffles. The clicking of his black boots on the hard wood is barely heard as he goes towards his chair facing the fireplace he never lights. He lit it once and the fear of burning down the home was incentive enough to not try the risky maneuver again.   
The man collapses into the seat, hand raising to adjust his hair instantly out of habit. It was dark and silent throughout the neighborhood at this time of night. He rarely returns from working earlier than two a.m. so its not really surprising. Houses on his street were close together, close enough that he could see inside his neighbors kitchen from his living room. He didn’t mind this much. Its not like he had annoying neighbors.   
Sometimes on hard nights, he pretended that his neighbor was his friend or roommate so he felt less alone. It brought comfort for a time but when his neighbor left his kitchen, turning off the lights as he went, dan couldn’t pretend anymore.   
His job was lonely. There was no way around that. Dan spent hour upon hour editing alone in a way too dark room. He made impressive work, not that it was noticed by many people but it got him a lot of job offers and afforded him this nice house. Sometimes he wished he worked more with a group though, so at least he’d make some friends in some coworkers. Dan wasn’t even certain who his coworkers were. Sure he saw them on occasion but those were far and few between and his job assignment switched as soon as he got a project done. The people would switch with every new project so he could hardly make friends that way since they’d leave in under three months.   
Yes it was lonely. He enjoyed the work though, it was his passion in life. Considering how long it took him to discover his passion in the first place, he wasn’t about to switch careers just because it made him a bit sad at night. Dan did need to find some friends, or maybe go on a date. He hadn’t been on one in months. He’d went on a couple when he first got to town but over the years he’d sought them out less and less so now he didn’t even want to meet someone new. It never ended well.   
He was dragged out of his thoughts of socializing by his neighbor turning on his kitchen light. It wasn’t uncommon for the man to make cereal in the late hours of night. His neighbor had dark ebony hair and wore the oddest shirts Dan had ever seen. Today he was in some sort of pizza shirt that reminded dan that he hadn’t eaten in eight hours. Instead of getting up to get food he stayed seated to watch his neighbor eat cereal straight out of the box. The man ate an alarming amount of cereal every week. Dan thought his cabinet would surely just be ten different boxes of cereal and nothing else.   
Dan sighed as his neighbor turned off the light and left the room. There was his moment of socialization for the month, he thought. For the amount of time he spent watching his neighbor, which he swore wasn’t creepy, he really should introduce himself.   
Dan stood and went to the kitchen to finally get that food his body was insisting upon. Looking in the fridge, he grabbed a piece of cold pizza and insisted to himself that it wasn’t because of the shirt his neighbor was wearing.   
He’s lived here for a year or so and for as long as he can remember, his neighbor has been here too. Its almost like he’s a part of dans life even though they don’t live together. Seeing the man through the window makes him feel, well he doesn’t know exactly, but certainly less detached from the world. The work he does, coupled with living all alone, sometimes he feel isolated from the rest of the world. Its like he’s living in it but on a separate plane of reality, one were no one sees him but he can watch everyone else. His neighbor doesn’t make him feel like that.  
He doesn’t know why, its not like the man is any different from anyone else. Sure he eats cereal at odd hours and wears shirts that make no sense and occasionally he bakes large amounts of cupcakes in the middle of the afternoon for no discernible reason, but really he’s average. He looks normal and he lives in a normal house and nothing about him should make dan feel this way. He’s not even sure exactly what he feels but he knows he shouldn’t feel it.   
Sometimes he will just be laying in bed and he’ll find himself thinking about his dark haired neighbor. Stupid thoughts go through his head. What if they met and became best friends, or more? What if in another world they are and that’s why he feels so connected to the guy? Dan doesn’t know what to make of these thoughts so he just runs with them.   
He’s made entire stories in his head where they meet. They get so elaborate that he forgets that it’s even a story and when he comes back down from the high fantasy brings him, he’s left with this nagging feeling of disappointment.   
Any day now he could march right over and introduce himself. It wouldn’t be weird to do so, as they have been neighbors for over a year, but he cant bring himself to do it for some reason. Probably because he’s built the guy up to be this person in his head and now if he doesn’t match that, it will be a disappointment.   
He finishes the pizza he didn’t even enjoy all that much due to focusing on his thoughts and pours a glass of water. Gripping the cup tightly, because he’s prone to dropping it, he heads to his room to sleep for the night. Its not like he will be sleeping soon, it is only three am after all, but his laptop needs charging. Also laying in bed and pretending to sleep sometimes helps him feel normal.   
His room was dull. That’s the best descriptor for it available. The walls were blank white and the bed was simple. No photos hung. No fancy decor furnished it. Dan spent so little time in the room that he hadn’t bothered to make it feel like home in any way.  
He set the water on the stand next to his bed and crawled in after plugging his laptop in.   
Sighing, he closed his eyes and imagined a world were he wouldn’t be scared to talk to the guy he adored from next door.

 


	2. let me scroll in peace

It was another one of those nights where he dreamed of the man next door. Dan wished he had a name for him sometimes but that would require speaking to him and that simply wasn't going to happen.  
The dream wasn't anything special, just them being housemates again. They had just moved into some apartment in a large city. He was so comfortable there, like it was truly home as opposed to where he currently lived. They had both watched anime shows together and baked some cupcakes. Dan wondered if he dreamed of that because of the many times his neighbor baked. He never felt lonely in these dreams, but rather he felt alive. Dan felt more alive in these dreams than anytime when he was awake.  
Dan also had no reason to believe the man liked anime, but he liked to think he did. He liked to think they shared many interests, although the man could just as well be some asshole. Just the thought felt wrong to dan. He didn’t know this guy at all but somehow he thought he must be a nice guy.  
Sighing, he rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Since it was the weekend, he didn't intend to do pretty much anything besides eat and scroll on tumblr. His job was time consuming and took so much brain power that on the weekends he liked to barely think at all if he could. He almost never went out with friends since he had hardly any, so it was safe to assume that on any given weekend you could find dan sitting in his house and browsing the internet with way too many uncleaned dishes sitting next to him.  
With his teeth brushed he grabbed his laptop and charger and moved out of his room. Dan placed the laptop on the chair he loved to sit in and plugged the charger into the wall next to it. He didn't need it charged yet but it would only be a matter of time and dan didn't want to move unless it was to get food.  
He strolled to the kitchen and got some cereal to eat while he browsed. Coco crunch today, he thought. Dan always cycled through cereals and got a new one almost every time he shopped.  
Pouring milk over his cereal, because milk was always last obviously, he finished his breakfast. Grabbing the bowl, he walked back to the chair he intended to spend all day in. Dan sat down after moving the laptop and began to eat.  
Out of habit, his eyes glanced up to look into his neighbors kitchen. Maybe his chair was his favorite chair because he had angled it to face his neighbors house but you could never prove that.  
It was about noon and his neighbor was standing in front of his sink and cleaning up some dishes. Dan sighed upon seeing the man.  
The shirt he was wearing today was a lot more dans style from what he could see, meaning it was monochrome. Usually he wore more bright colors but he liked this shirt on him as well. It was a ghost pattern that bordered on adorable, not that the man had to worry about looking any more cute than he already did. There was a metaphor somewhere about how the mans clothes were bright and colorful and dans were all grayscale but he didn't want to think to hard on that. Thinking in such detail about your neighbors clothing choices was probably a little creepy and he didn't want to feel like a stalker today.  
It was at that moment that the man looked up, as if hearing dans thoughts. His eyes locked with dans and he became self conscious immediately. He must look like such a slob right now with the cereal in his mouth and milk slightly dribbling down his chin. Dan made a nodding motion as if to say ‘hi, no I'm not a creepy stalker I'm just your neighbor.’  
The man smiled and made a slight waving motion with his hand. Dan loved the way his eyes lit up, like he was the sun. Dan waved back and looked back down quickly so his neighbor wouldn’t think he was staring. He continued eating his cereal and refused to look up as if suddenly his cereal was the most interesting thing to look at. He cursed his awkwardness silently to himself.  
With a smile like that, the man surely couldn’t be an asshole, right? Dan liked to think the best in people, especially people as attractive as his neighbor. The man just oozed confidence. It was in the way he walked and certainly in the way he just waved at dan just now. Usually people with that much confidence freaked dan out but for some reason this man didn’t. I supposed someone couldn’t really scare you much after you’d seen them in fuzzy bunny slippers eating cereal at three am.  
With this information, dan thought surely he could lift his head now. Hopefully the man wouldn’t be looking at him anymore.  
When he finally looked back up, the man was gone.


End file.
